The future can still be bright
by EliaAlice
Summary: Written for Shoot week. Prompts : "their special brand of domesticity" and "Root and Shaw playing a children's game". Can be seen as part 5 of a series called "Gen ships Root and Shaw".


Note : Written for Shoot week. Prompt : Root and Shaw playing a children's game. But eventually the beginning turned longer than I expected and I guess it can fit for the prompt "their spiecal brand of domesticity" too.  
And yes, I put Gen in this again. Blame her, she's too enjoyable to write. This is the last story of my series "Gen ships Root and Shaw" and it concludes everything. In other words : you won't understand this one if you haven't read the first four parts.  
(Nb : I named the game I describe in here as "ludo" because it seems to be the English equivalent of our French "petits chevaux". But as a result, the rules might be different. Sorry about that.)

* * *

Root woke up to an empty bed and smiled sadly. She should have expected it. Shaw wasn't one to finish the night.

She got up and walked to the en suite bathroom to take a shower, taking her time to wash her hair and get the remaining frosting out of it.

When she got back to the bedroom to get dressed, she heard some noises coming from downstairs. She quickly slipped her clothes on before opening a drawer and getting her taser out. She preferred to be ready for whatever lied ahead.

Root silently walked out of the room then warily down the stairs, making sure no step creaked. She stopped and listened then, frowning once she localized the source of the noise, and finally crossed the corridor, heading for the kitchen. She took a quick look inside and her eyes opened wide as she stepped into the room. She couldn't believe it.

"Still with the taser, huh ?" Shaw asked, her mouth full, her face betraying a smirk anyway.

Root blinked and looked at it before putting it down on the kitchen island absently as she took in the sight of the clean room.

"Did you –"

"I made you some pancakes too", Shaw cut her off, pointing at the plate on the table with her fork.

Root finally moved to take a seat in front of the other woman, trying to find which question would be better to ask first.

"How early did you get up ?"

It was the first coherent thing that managed to get out of her mouth. She couldn't believe that Shaw was still here, or that she had cleaned up her messed up kitchen, or that she had _cooked_ for her.

"Way earlier than you. You sleep like a dog !"

"And…" Root started, but she didn't quite know what to say next.

"I showered downstairs not to wake you up."

Shaw was visibly enjoying seeing the hacker speechless for once. She purposely wasn't answering the questions she knew the other woman was having mixed up in her mind.

Root eventually took a pancake and started eating it.

"You cleaned up", she finally stated instead of asking, already knowing the answer anyway.

"Had nothing better to do", Shaw shrugged, serving herself again. "And since when you finally got up you took your time to shower, I thought I could make some pancakes. At least there will be _something_ cooked correctly in this house", she rolled her eyes.

"You need to admit that the frosting was good", the hacker smirked.

"Probably because you didn't do it", Shaw noted ironically.

Root glared at her but didn't add anything and a kind of comfortable silence fell as they ate.

The hacker got lost in her thoughts, wondering how much of a miracle it was that Shaw had stayed. Last night had been the first they had shared since the car-sleeper train about two weeks ago and Root hadn't expected the other woman to get comfortable in a relationship that fast. It was probably because no one knew, she mentally shrugged. She didn't want to set her hopes too high, so she silenced the part of her that thought that maybe, just maybe, Shaw was so bored to death on a daily basis that she missed Root and the distraction that came along with her.

The hacker was so lost in her thoughts that it took her almost a minute to notice the conflicted face that was spreading on Shaw's features. The face that meant "I want to say something and I don't want to say it at the same time". Root waited until the other woman couldn't hold it back anymore, and the remark came out in a soft but impassive voice.

"You didn't have a nightmare."

Root blinked and raised her head to look the other woman in her eye. Telling that she was surprised to hear something like that come out of Shaw's mouth would have been way below the truth.

"They've gotten better", she finally managed to whisper, her eyes getting back at staring at her pancake.

Shaw only nodded and the subject was closed.

Root hadn't expected the other woman to ever speak about that night again. She knew that Shaw might have talked about the nightmares only to know if it could, in any way, became a threat to the team. But she also clung to the fact that she thought she had seen a very well-hidden hint of concern on Shaw's face, one that was there only if you knew what to look for, and it made her heart stir.

They finished their breakfast in silence.

* * *

Root put down the plate she had just washed when suddenly something came back to her mind.

"I didn't even say goodbye to Gen yesterday."

She now felt a bit sheepish about it. She had completely forgotten the kid once the other woman had been here and she wondered if she hurt Gen.

"What was she doing here in the first place ?" Shaw asked while she grabbed the plate to dry it up.

"She's bored at her school", Root shrugged. "I offered her to come for the afternoon, but you got here early."

"It's probably better, considering the mess you had already made", Shaw muttered.

"Anyway", the hacker rolled her eyes while putting down the last fork, "I'm going to call her to apologize. I think she felt like the dead weight yesterday."

"Ask her to come back. I haven't seen her in a while."

"You mean a bit more than a week ?" Root smirked.

Shaw glared at her and it made the hacker chuckle lightly.

"You like her, don't deny it."

"Just… Call, will you ?!" Shaw grumbled, walking out of the room.

* * *

"Hi, Gen", Root smiled when the kid finally picked up her phone after six ring tones.

She wasn't the least bit surprised that Gen would make it a point of honor to show that she had been a bit offended.

"Hi Sam."

Root took a deep breath. She would always feel weird to be called that by a kid who reminded her so much of Hanna, no matter how many times it happened, and no matter how much she knew it was just for safety reasons. She briefly wondered if Gen even knew her real name, or, well, the name Root, she thought as she remembered that _Sam_ was her real name.

"I'm sorry, about yesterday. We let you down a bit. Do you want to come back today ? Sam's still here too", she said, remembering in time that Shaw was now Sam too for the kid.

Gen took her time to answer. She had left because she had felt like the third wheel, but on the other hand she knew that the two women didn't get to see each other a lot, so she couldn't get too mad at them. And, after all, she had been the one playing matchmaker…

"Okay. But There are two conditions", she said, losing the offended tone but still determined to use the situation to her advantage.

"Go ahead", Root smiled.

"One : you two do nothing disgusting. Two : I get to choose what we do."

"One : agreed", the hacker held back a chuckle. "Two : what would that be ?"

"I'm bringing a game", Gen grinned and hung up.

* * *

"And this is a six ! Too bad for you", Gen smirked, chucking Shaw's token away with her own to place it on her starting square, right next to her corner area.

Root smiled fondly at the kid's enthusiasm. Gen was always so mature that it was easy to forget that she was still just a little girl, sometimes wanting to do things in accordance with her age… Like playing ludo.

Shaw looked at Gen furiously as she recovered her token on the table where it had landed and put it back on her own corner area but didn't say anything.

The kid threw the dice again and got a one, exactly the number she needed to get her fourth token in.

"It's not possible to be _that_ lucky", Shaw muttered, though she had to admit that the kid _was_ throwing the dice correctly and where it could be seen.

"You're just a sore loser", Root chuckled as it was her turn to play, and she got a six too.

"I'm _not_ a sore loser, I'm just pointing out that this game is purely based on luck", Shaw let out through gritted teeth.

"Which is exactly why you play for the fun and not to win", Root answered absently as she tried to find out which token of hers was the most interesting to move.

"Whatever", Shaw scowled.

The hacker finally decided she would get her last token on the board. She played again and got to move it four squares further. She then passed the dice to the other woman, who snatched it rather than took it from Root.

Shaw got a two and sighed loudly, mildly annoyed. Her last token on the board had been the one she had had to move on Gen's starting square and that had then gotten thrown out by the kid's one, so now she had to wait for a six before she could play again.

"Why am I the only one who didn't get a six ?" she grumbled.

"It's the game", Root smirked.

Shaw had bad luck since the beginning of the game. She had currently one token in, Root had two and another one almost there, while Gen's four tokens were already in. And it was obvious that the small woman didn't like to lose. _At all._

Shaw threw the dice at Gen who caught it skillfully and threw it in the same move. She got a two.

"Are you both ready to see me win ?" she smiled victoriously, only needing a three to end the game now.

Shaw slightly shook her head in disbelief and didn't answer, her scowl well established on her face, while Root was throwing the dice. She got a five and put her third token in front of her home column.

"Unbelievable !" the other woman exclaimed.

The hacker winked at her the best she could and made the dice roll to her. Shaw took it quite brutally then threw it forcefully, making it fall on the ground.

Gen and Root looked at each other and both muffled a giggle as they heard an angry grunt come from behind the table, where Shaw was getting the dice back.

"Do you find it ?" the hacker couldn't refrain herself from asking the more seriously she could, though her deep amusement still showed through in her voice.

Shaw's grunt became louder but got interrupted by a bang as the table made a small jump, and this time Root and Gen couldn't resist any longer. They both just burst into laughter, imagining the small woman vivaciously moving her head back up to grumble at the hacker's question and bumping into the table at the same time.

Shaw finally managed to extricate herself from behind it and glared at them with murderous eyes as she slightly massaged the top of her head, only causing Root and Gen to laugh even more.

She sat back on her chair and threw the dice, wondering which one of them she was going to kill first, but her mood improved a bit when she saw the six she had just gotten. She put one of her tokens on her starting square and played again, getting a six again, then another six, and finally a one. An impressive combination that allowed her to chuck away the token that was in front of Root's home column with obvious delight. The hacker took it back without a word.

"What's it like to lose a token so close from its goal ?" Shaw teased, giving the dice to Gen.

"Nothing", Root shrugged. "It's just a game, you know", she added ironically as the other woman glared at the kid who had just gotten the three she needed.

Gen moved her last token to the matching place and smiled victoriously.

"I win !" she shouted, throwing her arms up in the air.

"Well done", Root smiled fondly.

"We're finishing this", Shaw growled at her. "You and me."

The hacker glanced at Gen who nodded and moved her chair back, settling comfortably on it.

"Go ahead. I'll just watch and laugh", the kid said, looking at Shaw who narrowed her eyes at her.

And that's exactly what she did, until she couldn't stop herself from repeating something she had once said.

Root had smirked at Shaw's glare again, starting yet another quarrel that Gen happily interrupted.

"I'm glad to see that some things didn't change when you two started dating…" she started seriously.

"We're not dating", Shaw grumbled immediately.

"Like what ?" Root asked at the same time, looking curiously at the kid.

"… You still bicker like a married couple."

Shaw looked at Gen with murderous eyes again, just like the first time the kid had said that. Root on the other hand, after a second of silence due to the surprise of the unexpected answer, burst into a free, happy laughter like she hadn't had in years. Looking mockingly at Shaw, Gen joined her laughter to the hacker's and for the first time in what seemed like forever, Root caught herself thinking that maybe, just maybe, the future could still be bright.


End file.
